I went to the Grand Illusion and saw some Charlie Chaplin movies from 1915 & the music sucked.
The sound track was modern mis-performances of "20s" jazz.
Really, the music was a mish-mash of fake jazz styles that mostly tapped French cafe music of the 50s.
It ruined these great silent Chaplin movies, which would have been better if they hadn't been tampered with.

I had a great Friday night watching
Goatgirl opening for the Gallus Brothers at the Rendezvous. Goatgirl are local weirdos who sing slow thoughtful songs about sex and death.

The Gallus bros were quite a spectacle, playing old time country blues while interrupting themselves with acro-balancing and juggling tricks, all the while keeping up the music.

A boring 'alt-country' band played in between, which was the right moment to load up on alcohol. But the other two bands really had some very entertaining stuff, totally worth the $5 charge.

I saw the Billy Nayer Show at the Jewelbox last night. They are in New York recording a new album and flew out here to play a bunch of the brand spankin' new songs they're working on. It was fantastic. The new songs rocked. Singer Cory McAbee is a fantastic songwriter and showman and the trio navigated ably across a broad dynamic and emotional spectrum ranging from sweet, silly and melancholy love-gone-wrong songs to blasting walls of feedback backing punk rock Grimm's fairy tales of devils, bunnies and copulating houseflies. Best song: "I'm your peg-legged father."

Hot damn.

I stumbled in to the Blue Moon this weekend just as some drunk guy was doing his best faceplant on the sidewalk out front. Not a good sign. The place is about as grimey as you can get. The band was pretty bad so I left without buying a beer.

I saw the ABODOX play at the skatepark benefit at the Sunset on Saturday. Even without their bass player they layed down the heaviest, most technical metal show I've ever seen from a local band.

Catch them if you can - they don't seem to play out much.